Faced With Muhammad Cartoon, D.C. Metro Bans Issue-Oriented Ads

Washington D.C.'s transit authority yesterday decided to ban all issue-related advertising on commuter buses and trains in the nation's capital. The ban was prompted after the American Freedom Defense Initiative sought to place ads featuring a cartoon of Muhammad.

The cartoon is a sketch by artist Bosch Fawstin of a turban-wearing, sword-wielding man saying "You can't draw me!" It won a "draw Muhammad" contest in Garland, Texas, that was unsuccessfully attacked by Muslim-American roommates earlier this month.

The ads would have sported a banner saying "Support Free Speech."

The cartoon that AFDI planned to use as the basis of its ad.

According to the Post, "rather than prohibit those ads specifically -- a move that federal courts have forbidden -- Metro opted to ban all new advocacy ads for the rest of the year."